Edward J. Noble | American businessman | Britannica.com American businessman THIS IS A DIRECTORY PAGE. Britannica does not currently have an article on this topic. Learn about this topic in these articles: in American Broadcasting Company (ABC): Origins ...and the Blue networks. After the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) declared in 1941 that no company could own more than one radio network, NBC in 1943 sold the less-lucrative Blue Network to Edward J. Noble, the millionaire maker of Life Savers candy, who initially renamed it the American Broadcasting System before settling on the name the American Broadcasting Company, Inc. (ABC). ABC... in radio: The development of networks and production centres ...for a monopoly on broadcasting, and in 1941 it recommended that no single company own more than one network. As a result, NBC decided to sell its Blue network in 1943. The chain was purchased by Edward J. Noble, president of the Life Savers candy company. By 1944 it had been renamed the American Broadcasting Company (ABC).

About: Edward John Noble About: Edward John Noble An Entity of Type : HeadOfState110164747 , from Named Graph : , within Data Space : dbpedia.org Edward John Noble (1882 - 1958, aged 76) was an American broadcasting and candy industrialist originally from Gouverneur, New York. He co-founded the Life Savers Corporation in 1913. He founded the American Broadcasting Company when he purchased the Blue Network in 1943 following the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) decree that RCA divest itself of one of its two radio networks.Edward Noble was born in Gouverneur, New York and educated in the public schools. He attended Syracuse University and graduated from Yale in 1905.Edward Noble died peacefully in his sleep on December 28, 1958. Property abstract Edward John Noble (1882 - 1958, aged 76) was an American broadcasting and candy industrialist originally from Gouverneur, New York. He co-founded the Life Savers Corporation in 1913.

He founded the American Broadcasting Company when he purchased the Blue Network in 1943 following the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) decree that RCA divest itself of one of its two radio networks. Edward Noble was born in Gouverneur, New York and educated in the public schools. He attended Syracuse University and graduated from Yale in 1905. In 1912, chocolate manufacturer Clarence Crane of Cleveland, Ohio invented Life Savers as a "summer candy" that could withstand heat better than chocolate. Since the mints looked like miniature life preservers, he called them Life Savers. After registering the trademark, Crane sold the rights to the peppermint candy to Edward Noble for $2,900. Instead of using cardboard rolls, which were not very successful, Noble created tin-foil wrappers to keep the mints fresh. Pep-O-Mint was the first Life Savers flavor. He was the first chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Authority. He also served as secretary of Commerce under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1939-1940.

Following the Federal Communications Commission's order that RCA divest itself of one of its two radio networks, he founded the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) when he purchased the Blue Network (formerly part of NBC) on October 12, 1943. Noble tried valiantly to build ABC into an innovative and competitive broadcaster, but was hampered by financial problems and the pressure of competing with long-established NBC and CBS, and by 1951 was forced to enter negotiations to merge the network with United Paramount Theaters, headed by Leonard Goldenson; Goldenson would become chairman of the ABC network, while Noble remained on the ABC board of directors for the remainder of his life. In 1943, Edward John Noble bought the St. Catherines Island on the coast of Georgia; in 1968, ten years after his death, the island was transferred to the Edward J. Noble Foundation. The island is now owned by the St. Catherines Island Foundation, and the island's interior is operated for charitable, scientific, literary, and educational purposes.

The foundation aims to promote conservation of natural resources, the survival of endangered species, and the preservation of historic sites, and to expand human knowledge in the fields of ecology, botany, zoology, natural history, archaeology, and other scientific and educational disciplines. Noble was part of the St. Lawrence Seaway Project and was appointed to the advisory board by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1954. He owned Boldt Castle, the Thousand Island Club, and a summer residence on Wellesley Island. The ornamental street lights in the village park are all that remain of the gift of new street lights that were given to the village by Edward and his brother, Robert. The lights were in memory of their father. Edward Noble died peacefully in his sleep on December 28, 1958. Three hospitals and a foundation are named after him. In Rocksteady Studios' most recent and final installment of the Batman Arkham video game series, Batman Arkham Knight, there is a possible dual reference to Edward J Noble and Arkham Knight 3D artist Edward Noble.

After entering the tower from Bruce Wayne's office balcony, a plaque recognizing either (or both) Noble(s) can be found beside a model of Wayne Tower in the receptionist lobby. It reads "Wayne Tower & Plaza Architecture by: Edward Noble" followed by a model credit to "Martin Teichmann" (a Rocksteady Studios Environment Artist). (en) Edward John Noble (1882 à Gouverneur, New York - 28 décembre 1958) était un entrepreneur américain dans le domaine de la radiodiffusion et les confiseries. (fr) Edward John Noble (1882 - 1958) fue un industrial de broadcasting y dulces de origen estadounidense originalmente de Gouverneur, Nueva York. Fue el co-fundador de la Life Savers Corporation en 1913. Fundó la American Broadcasting Company cuando compró la NBC Blue Network en 1943, después de que la Federal Communications Commission (FCC) decretó que la Radio Corporation of America (RCA) debería deshacerse de uno de sus dos cadenas de radio.

Edward Noble nació en Gouverneur, Nueva York y se educó en las escuelas públicas. Asistió a la Universidad de Siracusa y graduó de la Universidad Yale en 1905. En 1912, el fabricante de chocolate Clarence Crane de Cleveland, Ohio inventó Life Savers como un "dulce de verano" que podría soportar el calor mejor que el chocolate. Porque las mentas parecían a salvavidas miniaturas, los llamó "Life Savers." Después de registrar la marca, Crane vendió los derechos para las mentas a Edward Noble por $2,900. En lugar de utilizar rollos de cartón, que no tuvieron mucho éxito, Noble creó envoltorios de aluminio para mantener el fresco. Pep-O-Mint fue el primer sabor de los Life Savers. Fue el primer presidente de la "Civil Aeronautics Authority." También se desempeñó como Subsecretario de Comercio bajo el presidente Franklin D. Roosevelt, en 1939 y 1940.

Después de que la Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ordenó que RCA despoja de uno de sus dos cadenas de radio, fundó la American Broadcasting Company (ABC) cuando compró la NBC Blue Network el 12 de octubre de 1943. Noble valientemente trató construir ABC en una cadena innovadora y competitiva, pero se vio obstaculizado por los problemas financieros y la presión de competir con las cadenas establecidas NBC y CBS, y en 1951 se vio obligado a entrar en negociaciones para fusionar la cadena con United Paramount Theaters, dirigida por Leonard Goldenson; Goldenson se convertiría en el presidente de la cadena ABC, mientras que Noble mantuvo en la junta de directores de ABC para el resto de su vida. En 1943, Edward John Noble compró St. Catherines Island, en la costa de Georgia; en 1968, diez años después de su muerte, la isla fue transferida a la Edward J. Noble Foundation. La isla es ahora propiedad de la St.

Catherines Island Foundation, y el interior de la isla es operado para propósitos caritativos, científicos, literarios, y educativos. La fundación tiene el objetivo de promover la conservación de los recursos naturales, la supervivencia de especies en peligro de extinción, y la preservación de sitios históricos, y para ampliar el conocimiento humano en los campos de la ecología, la botánica, la zoología, la historia natural, la arqueología, y otras disciplinas científicas y educativas. Noble fue un parte del proyecto en torno a la vía marítima del San Lorenzo y fue nombrado como un miembro del consejo asesor del presidente Dwight D. Eisenhower en 1954. Era propietario de "Boldt Castle," el "Thousand Island Club," y una residencia de verano en Wellesley Island. Los luces públicos ornamentales en el parque del pueblo son todo lo que queda de la entrega de nuevas luces de calle que se dieron al pueblo por Edward y su hermano, Robert.

Las luces estaban en memoria de su padre. Edward Noble murió pacíficamente mientras dormía el 28 de diciembre de 1958. Tres hospitales y una fundación llevan su nombre. (es) Edward John Noble (1882 à Gouverneur, New York - 28 décembre 1958) était un entrepreneur américain dans le domaine de la radiodiffusion et les confiseries. (fr) Edward John Noble (1882 - 1958, aged 76) was an American broadcasting and candy industrialist originally from Gouverneur, New York. He co-founded the Life Savers Corporation in 1913. He founded the American Broadcasting Company when he purchased the Blue Network in 1943 following the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) decree that RCA divest itself of one of its two radio networks.Edward Noble was born in Gouverneur, New York and educated in the public schools. He attended Syracuse University and graduated from Yale in 1905.Edward Noble died peacefully in his sleep on December 28, 1958.

(en) Edward John Noble (1882 - 1958) fue un industrial de broadcasting y dulces de origen estadounidense originalmente de Gouverneur, Nueva York. Fue el co-fundador de la Life Savers Corporation en 1913. Fundó la American Broadcasting Company cuando compró la NBC Blue Network en 1943, después de que la Federal Communications Commission (FCC) decretó que la Radio Corporation of America (RCA) debería deshacerse de uno de sus dos cadenas de radio.Edward Noble murió pacíficamente mientras dormía el 28 de diciembre de 1958.Tres hospitales y una fundación llevan su nombre. (es) Robert H. Hinckley, Sr., Brigham Young High School Class of 1910 Brigham Young High School Class of 1910 Robert H. Hinckley was born in Fillmore, Utah, on June 8, 1891. His parents were Edwin S. Hinckley and Addie Henry Hinckley.

His father, Edwin Smith Hinckley, graduated with the Brigham Young Academy High School Normal Class of 1891 on May 21, 1891. He then graduated with the BY Academy Collegiate Class of 1897, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Didactics (B. D.) on May 27, 1897. Edwin Smith Hinckley became a member of the BYA faculty as Professor of Geology and Education from 1895 to 1915. During that time, he served as the Sixth Principal of BY High School from 1904 to 1909. It was in this atmosphere of education that Robert H. Hinckley grew up and was educated. He received his early education at the Brigham Young University Training School. Robert graduated from Brigham Young High School in 1910. He then he served as a missionary in Germany for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He completed his college work at Brigham Young University in 1916, earning a B.A. degree.

On June 23, 1915, Robert Hinckley married Abrelia Clarissa Seely, daughter of John H. and Margaret Peel Seely. After graduating from BYU, he and Mrs. Hinckley moved to Mount Pleasant, Utah, where Mr. Hinckley became a member of the North Sanpete High School faculty. In the same year he established the Seely-Hinckley Automobile Company in Mount Pleasant. In 1918, Mr. Hinckley was elected to the Utah State Legislature from Sanpete County, and in 1923 he was elected mayor of Mount Pleasant. In 1927, Hinckley moved his family to Ogden, Utah and established an automobile business there. He became active in business, civic, and state affairs. He helped organize, and became an officer of the Utah-Pacific Airways, Inc. The Utah-Pacific Airways company survived the pioneering stages of aviation with a perfect safety record. It carried thousands of passengers and taught hundreds of students to fly during the ten years Mr. Hinckley was associated with the company.

It was the first flying service to furnish airplanes to the government for the purpose of taking a game census in Yellowstone National Park. Utah-Pacific Airways demonstrated that it was possible to count moose, elk, mountain sheep, etc., by airplane. This became a common practice as did the technique of dropping supplies to forest-fire fighters by small parachutes, also developed by Utah-Pacific Airways. Robert H. Hinckley's enthusiasm for flying developed early. He attended his first International Air Meet at Belmont Park, New York, in 1910. Three years later at Templehofer Field, Berlin, Germany, he made his first flight with Melli Beese, the champion woman flier of the world at that time, and wife of the French airman Charles Boutard. Years later, in 1927, he was one of the first revenue passengers to fly between Salt Lake City and Reno on a Boeing Air Transport plane. He became one of the most frequent users of commercial airplanes while serving as regional director of the Western Region for the Works Progress Administration. He played an important role in the development of airports under the WPA program. When the federal government set up its emergency relief program in 1933, Robert H.

Hinckley had already served on Governor George H. Dern's Voluntary Relief Committee from 1931. He had also been appointed in 1933 by Utah Governor Henry H. Blood as director of the state emergency relief program enacted by a special session of the legislature of that year. The responsibility of supervising the expenditure of relief funds allocated by their respective state governments, as well as large sums of money provided by the federal government, fell on the state directors. Within a few months after Mr. Hinckley took the job of distributing federal funds, the success of his administration attracted attention in Washington, D.C. In September 1934, Hinckley was appointed by Harry L. Hopkins to serve as assistant administrator of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, and he continued as field representative for eleven western states, and Hawaii and Alaska, a position in which he served until 1938. His work in these state and national relief programs launched a long career of government service. It was because of this background of successful administration, and his outstanding contribution to the development of airports and airways, that Robert H. Hinckley was nominated by President Franklin D.

Roosevelt to become a member of the Civil Aeronautics Authority in 1938. Hinckley was sworn in August 8, 1938. Known as a man of action, it is not surprising that by November the Washington National Airport was begun. It was completed in June 1940. Mr. Hinckley became chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Authority in April 1939. A year later, he was appointed assistant secretary of commerce. In this position he was responsible for the direction of the Civil Aeronautics Administration, the United States Weather Bureau, and the Coast and Geodetic Survey. Undoubtedly Mr. Hinckley's most outstanding accomplishment during his service in the Civil Aeronautics Authority was the Civilian Pilot Training Program. This program, originally conceived by him as a peacetime project to give flight training to the youth of college age, proved to be one of the greatest contributions to the nation's war effort. The program was planned in 1938 and launched in 1939 with the passage by the Seventy-sixth Congress of the Civilian Pilot Training Act.

Civilian Pilot Training Program At the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941 (less than three years since the inception of the Civilian Pilot Training Program), pilots were trained and airplanes were available for an all-out war effort. A favorite expression of Mr. Hinckley in reference to the growth of aviation was "air-condition". He thought the country should prepare for the air age he knew was sure to come. "Air-conditioning" to him was "conditioning people to the air, just as the people of the South Sea Islands are conditioned to the water, that other strange element to man." He said in his article "Air-Conditioning American Youth," Collier's Magazine (September 1942), "In short, to be air-conditioned means to be in a state of readiness to do something about aviation and not just feel strongly about it." He pursued his idea of "air-conditioning America" long after he left the CAA. Robert H. Hinckley resigned as assistant secretary of commerce in 1942. When Mr.

Hinckley joined Sperry Corporation (Sperry Rand) after his resignation from the Commerce Department, it was in the belief that he would be undertaking work of great importance to war production, and that he would give up government service and remain in private business until his retirement. This belief was short-lived when, in 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt nominated him for Senate approval to be director of Contract Settlement for a term of two years. The settlement of government contracts was one of the most serious problems of the country's transition from war to peace. The Contract Settlement Act of 1944 stated that "It is the policy of the Government, and it shall be the responsibility of the contracting agencies and the director to provide war contractors with speedy and fair compensation for the termination of any war contract." It was hoped the policies established by the act would shift the United States economy from wartime to peacetime production with as little unemployment, waste, and other economic problems as possible. The organization was set up and functioning successfully when Mr. Hinckley resigned eighteen months later, February 1, 1946, to return to private life. President Harry S. Truman summed up his praise of Robert H.

Hinckley's service in Contract Settlement as "A superior performance of a difficult task." Back in private life Robert Hinckley helped found the American Broadcasting Company with Edward J. Noble, long a close friend and colleague. Commercial television had become a reality, and it was in this exciting new medium, as well as radio, that Mr. Hinckley was to become involved. He was elected vice president and director of what was soon to become one of the major networks, merging in 1951 with Paramount Theatres, and extending throughout the United States. Further demands for Mr. Hinckley's talents in government service came from President Harry S. Truman, who appealed to him as a member of the Economic Cooperation Administration Public Advisory Board, to do a special inspection tour of European countries to determine the success of the Marshall Plan. Mr. Hinckley took a leave of absence in August 1949, from American Broadcasting - Paramount Theatres to complete the inspection. He continued to serve on the advisory board when the Economic Cooperation Administration was succeeded by the Mutual Security Agency. Robert H. Hinckley generously served state and national government, industry, educational institutions, and philanthropic causes during his lifetime.

He was a member of many boards of directors. He served four terms on the University of Utah Board of Regents, serving until 1973. He established the Robert H. Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah on May 10, 1965, with a gift from himself and the Edward John Noble Foundation. On April 13, 1977, Robert H. Hinckley, eighty-five years of age, received the ninth annual Brotherhood Citation Award from the Utah Chapter, National Conference of Christians and Jews. The citation reads that Mr. Hinckley is honored for his "indelible impression of service to town and country as a state legislator, a mayor, a teacher, a national administrator, a presidential advisor, a giant of the business world, and as a benefactor of great universities." Robert H. Hinckley died in 1988 at his ranch in Eden, Utah. Robert H. Hinckley (right) with Orville Wright (left). Hinckley was the second chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority, and was the driving force behind the Civilian Pilot Training Program. 1946: Edward Noble & Robert H.

Hinckley, Sr. Co-Found the American Broadcasting Company Broadcasting in the United States in the late 1920s was dominated by two companies, CBS and RCA's NBC, the first true radio networks. Prior to forming NBC in 1926, RCA had acquired AT&T's New York station WEAF (later WNBC). Along with WEAF came a loosely organized system that fed programming to other stations in the northeastern U.S. Prior to acquiring the WEAF group in mid-1926, RCA had previously owned a second such group, with WJZ in New York as the lead station (purchased in 1923 from Westinghouse). These were the foundations of RCA's two distinct programming services, the NBC "Red" and NBC "Blue" networks. The color designations apparently originated from the color of the push-pins early engineers used to designate affiliates of WEAF (red pins) and WJZ (blue pins).

In 1940, the Federal Communications Commission issued a "Report on Chain Broadcasting." This report stated that two corporate owners (and the co-operatively owned Mutual Broadcasting System) dominated American broadcasting as a type of monopoly, and proposed "divorcement" requiring the sale by RCA of one of its chains. NBC Red was the larger radio network, carrying the leading entertainment and music programs. In addition, many Red affiliates were high-powered, clear-channel stations heard nationwide. NBC Blue offered most of the company's news and cultural programs, many of them "sustaining" or unsponsored. Among other findings, the FCC claimed that RCA used NBC Blue to suppress competition against NBC Red. The FCC did not regulate or license networks directly, but it could influence them by means of its hold over individual stations. Consequently, the FCC issued a ruling that "no license shall be issued to a standard broadcast station affiliated with a network which maintains more than one network." NBC protested that this indirect style of regulation was illegal, and appealed to the courts. However, the FCC won on appeal, and NBC was forced to sell one of its networks. It opted to sell NBC Blue.

Throughout 1942 and 1943, NBC Red and NBC Blue divided their assets. A price of $8 million was put on the assets of the Blue group, and the Blue package was offered to potential buyers. Investment bank Dillon, Read made an offer of $7.5 million, but RCA chief David Sarnoff held firm at $8 million. After all, the Blue package contained leases on land-lines and on studio facilities in New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago and Los Angeles; contracts with talent and with about sixty affiliates; the trademark and "good will" associated with the Blue name; and licenses for three stations (WJZ in New York, San Francisco's KGO, and WENR in Chicago - really a half-station, since WENR shared time and a frequency with "Prairie Farmer" station WLS), with which it would later merge after World War II. RCA finally found a buyer in Edward Noble, owner of Life Savers candy and the Rexall drugstore chain. In order to complete the station-license transfer, Noble had to sell the New York radio station that he owned, WMCA. Also, FCC hearings were required.

After considerable negotiation, the sale closed on October 12, 1943. The new network, known simply as "The Blue Network," was owned by the American Broadcasting System (ABS), a company Noble formed for the deal. During the early 1940's, Robert H. Hinckley was serving as a vice president of the Sperry Corporation, leaving to join Noble in his broadcasting ventures. Noble decided to rename The Blue Network the American Broadcasting Company. This set off a flurry of re-naming. To avoid confusion, CBS changed the call-letters of its New York flagship, WABC-AM 880, to WCBS-AM in 1946. In 1946, Hinckley and Edward Noble and Robert H. Hinckley co-founded the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), and over the next two decades they worked together helped to build this company into the major radio and television network that it became. ABC Radio began slowly; with few "hit" shows, it had to build an audience. ABC paid to acquire more stations, among them Detroit's WXYZ, one of the founding stations of the Mutual network.

WXYZ was where The Lone Ranger, Sergeant Preston, Sky King and other popular daily serials originated. With this purchase, ABC instantly acquired a bloc of established daily shows. ABC also bought KECA (now KABC) in Los Angeles, to give the network a Hollywood production base. Counter-programming became an ABC specialty, for example, placing a raucous quiz-show like Stop the Music! against more thoughtful fare on NBC and CBS. Unlike the other networks, ABC pre-recorded many programs; advances in tape-recording brought back from conquered Germany meant that the audio quality of tape could not be distinguished from "live" broadcasts. As a result, several high-rated stars who wanted freedom from rigid schedules, among them Bing Crosby, moved to ABC. Though still rated fourth, by the late 1940s ABC had begun to close in on the better-established networks. Hinckley retired from ABC in 1959 as vice president of its Washington office, but he remained as a member of the ABC Board of Directors until 1969.

Edward Noble : Wikis (The Full Wiki) The Full Wiki More info on Edward Noble Wikis Edward Noble: Wikis Advertisements Note: Many of our articles have direct quotes from sources you can cite, within the Wikipedia article! This article doesn't yet, but we're working on it! See more info or our list of citable articles . Related top topics (Redirected to Edward John Noble article) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Edward John Noble (1882 – 1958) was an American broadcasting and candy industrialist originally from Gouverneur , New York . He co-founded the Life Savers Corporation in 1913. He founded the American Broadcasting Company when he purchased the NBC Blue Network in 1943 following the Federal Communications Commission 's (FCC) decree that RCA divest itself of one of its two radio networks. Edward Noble was born in Gouverneur, New York and educated in the public schools. He attended Syracuse University and graduated from Yale in 1905. In 1912, chocolate manufacturer Clarence Crane of Cleveland, Ohio invented Life Savers as a "summer candy" that could withstand heat better than chocolate.

Since the mints looked like miniature life preservers, he called them Life Savers. After registering the trademark, Crane sold the rights to the peppermint candy to Edward Noble for $2,900. Instead of using cardboard rolls, which were not very successful, Noble created tin-foil wrappers to keep the mints fresh. Pep-O-Mint was the first Life Savers flavor. He was the first chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Authority . He also served as Under secretary of Commerce under President Franklin D. Roosevelt , 1939-1940. in 1943, following the Federal Communications Commission 's order that RCA divest itself of one of its two radio networks, he founded the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) when he purchased the NBC Blue Network. In 1943 Edward John Noble bought the St. Catherines Island on the coast of Georgia; in 1968, ten years after his death, the island was transferred to the Edward J. Noble Foundation. The island is now owned by the St. Catherines Island Foundation, and the island's interior is operated for charitable, scientific, literary, and educational purposes.

The foundation aims to promote conservation of natural resources, the survival of endangered species, and the preservation of historic sites, and to expand human knowledge in the fields of ecology , botany , zoology , natural history, archaeology , and other scientific and educational disciplines. Noble was part of the St. Lawrence Seaway Project and was appointed to the advisory board by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1954. He owned Boldt Castle, the Thousand Island Club, and a summer residence on Wellesley Island. The ornamental street lights in the village park are all that remain of the gift of new street lights that were given to the village by Edward and his brother, Robert. The lights were in memory of their father. Edward Noble died peacefully in his sleep on December 28, 1958. Three hospitals and a foundation are named after him. External links KGW Radio The Oregonian Publishing Company, under the direction of Edgar Piper, publisher of the daily Oregonian newspaper, was granted the 98th Radio License in the country and their signal hit the airwaves on March 25, 1922 with the call letters KGW as Portland’s first station used for commercial purposes.

Piper purchased a 50-watt experimental transmitter built by Jesse Weed from the Portland office of the Shipowners Radio Service. The studio, as shown above, was housed on the 11th floor of The Oregonian Building Tower at Sixth & Alder Streets. The transmitter was located on the 13th floor. The antenna consisted of a 70-foot, four-wire inverted "L"-type flattop, suspended between a 60-foot mast on top of the building and a 95-foot tower on the nearby Northwestern Bank Building. R.G. Calvert supervised the operation and Richard “Dick” Haller was the program director. Their aim was to give their listeners news fresh from the press with the best music and outstanding speakers. KGW’s early announcers and writers were usually former newspaper employees, and the first engineers and technicians came from the ranks of former maritime wireless radio operators. When the station first went on the air, 5,000 radio sets were said to have tuned in. Speakers included The Oregonian’s Editor, Edgar Piper and Mayor George Baker. There was also an opera singer, a novelist and a live musical presentation.

Dick Haller became known as KGW’s “Million-Dollar Voice” and his broadcasts were very popular. He would go on to a successful career with NBC in San Francisco. As an early radio station experiencing tremendous popularity, KGW implemented many innovative new broadcasting ideas. KGW set itself apart from the other stations by having the first radio variety show in the nation, the first audience participation show, the first quiz program, the first library program, the first radio debate, the first in-school listening program and the first singing commercial. In 1925, on-air advertising became a source of KGW’s operating revenue. KGW produced the first-ever singing commercial for Sears, Roebuck and Company in the late 1920s. KGW was the first station in Oregon to affiliate with a national broadcasting service when they carried the inaugural program of the National Broadcasting Company’s Orange Network on April 5, 1927. The Orange Network was known as the NBC Pacific Coast Network.

The nationally famous Hoot Owls , officially known as "The Order of Hoot Owls Roosting in the Oregonian Tower" aired from 1923 to 1933 as a 2-1/2 hour variety show that was broadcast to over one million listeners. Their slogan soon became "Keep Growing Wiser," whose initial letters represented the KGW call letters. The only other show that rivaled the Hoot Owls in popularity was Amos & Andy which first aired in Portland in 1928 on KFEC, which had studios on the fifth floor of Meier & Frank . One of the performers on the Hoot Owls program, Mel Blanc , achieved fame as the author of cartoon characterization in later years in Hollywood where he became the nation’s voice for cartoon characters such as Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny. Blanc, who received his high school education in Portland, joined the program in 1927. Nicknamed "The Grand Snicker" on the Hoot Owls, Blanc became well known for his comedy, as well as his skills as a storyteller, ad-libber, musician, vocalist, and, later, orchestra pit conductor.

Blanc left KGW in 1933 and moved down the hall to perform on sister station KEX in the popular "Cobwebs and Nuts" program, before moving to Hollywood in 1935. While working on animated cartoons at Warner Brothers studios in Southern California, he became known as the "man of a thousand voices." During his early years in Portland radio, Blanc laid the foundation for many of his later cartoon voices and comedy routines. Chet Huntley spent time early in his career at KGW before joining David Brinkley in anchoring the NBC Nightly News. One of KGW’s managers who was highly respected in the radio business was Arden X. Pangborn and he found his way to Hollywood as well. KGW newsman Tom McCall went on to become Governor of Oregon. Ted Hallock worked at KGW and later went on to serve in the Oregon Senate from 1963 to 1983. After airing for a short time on KFEC, Amos & Andy moved to KGW in 1929 and then to KOIN in 1939.

Amos & Andy became part of the eastern NBC Blue Network schedule on August 19, 1929. Under special arrangements, the program began airing on the Orange chain, NBC's Pacific Coast Network and it was heard over KGW at 8:30 pm beginning on November 28, 1929. By 1931, Amos & Andy had become a national phenomenon with nearly 40 million listeners. Amos & Andy moved to the NBC Red Network in 1935. On April 3, 1939 the program moved to CBS and it was heard locally on KOIN. KGW became part of the NBC Red Network in July of 1936 when the NBC Orange Network was fazed out. It was announced on September 1, 1942, "There will be no more Red Network, it will simply be “NBC". The Blue Network was designated as a separate company in January 1942 in preparation for future sale. On October 12, 1943, NBC Chairman David Sarnoff sold The Blue Network to Edward J. Noble, owner of Lifesavers Candy Company.

The Blue Network name was changed to the American Broadcasting Co. (ABC) on June 15, 1945. When Si Newhouse, owner of The Oregonian, wanted to sell KGW and concentrate on his newspaper business, he sold it to Mrs. Scott Bullitt of the King Broadcasting empire in Seattle and her Portland business partners on November 1, 1953. Mrs. Bullitt had over 40 years of influence in Portland broadcasting. On December 17, 1956, KGW Radio ended their long-time affiliation with NBC when they became an affiliate of ABC. Broadcast Ownership Regulations 1842 Samuel Morse patents the telegraph 1897 Marconi forms the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Co.

which was later assumed by RCA 1913 US closes private radio facilities and assumes control of the airwaves for war purposes 1920 First radio broadcast for general reception by 8XK in Wilkensburg, Pa., and the first radio news broadcast of election returns by KDKA in Pittsburgh History 101 1926 National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is formed and the first live television broadcast is shown in England 1927 NBC sets up two radio networks, the RED Network and the BLUE Network 1934 Communications Act of 1934 Establishes Federal Communications Commission. 1939 First regular television broadcast in United States. President Franklin Roosevelt at the New York World�s Fair. 1941 FCC designates frequencies and authorizes FM The Story behind the RED and BLUE Networks -- RCA (Radio Corporation of America) launches NBC (National Broadcasting Company) NBC controlled the RED Network derived from the Telephone Group and the BLUE Network derived from the Radio Group. In 1940s the FCC orders NBC to sell one of the Networks. In 1943 Edward J. Noble buys BLUE Network for $8 million, (Edward J.

Noble inventor LifeSavers) and the BLUE Network becomes ABC (American Broadcasting Company) 1953 ABC attempts to merge with Paramount Studios. The merger is objected to by two FCC Commissioners because of a erceived monopoly threat. More monopoly threats ensue in 1966 when ITT tries to take over ABC. The merger is approved, because RCA already owns NBC, but ITT withdraws over possible litigation. 1979 FCC issues licenses for low-power UHF and VHF television stations 1984 Cable Communications Policy Act -- Ended local regulation of cable and deregulated cable rates 1992 The Internet is completed by the National Science Foundation 1996 The Telecommunications Act -- Mergers in Telecom industry begin Broadcast Deregulation In the 1970�s Licensees were limited to a total of 7 television licenses, 7 AM radio licenses, and 7 FM radio licenses nationwide; known as the 7-7-7 rule. 1985 the 7-7-7 rule was upgraded to the 12-12-12 rule.

� 1992 saw the rules relaxed even further to the 12-18-18 rule. Rules From The FCC Telecommunications Act of 1996 changed regulation so that a single company cannot own more than eight radio stations in a given market, however, there is no limit on the number of radio stations one company can own nationwide. In August 1999 the FCC created the �eight voices� test and the 35% rule. The rule said that Locally-a company may own two TV stations in the same market (a duopoly) as long as eight individual voices still exist. Nationally- No company may own more than 35% of the nation�s TV audience FCC Ownership Challenges The �eight voices� rule recently was challenged successfully by Sinclair Broadcasting Co. vs. FCC. Viacom, Fox and NBC have successfully challenged the 35% rule. Time-Warner successfully challenged the cable/broadcast cross-ownership rule. Additional Rules From The FCC Newspaper/Broadcast cross-ownership restriction -- Prohibits the same company from owning a newspaper and broadcast station in the same market.

However, the FCC has permitted exceptions to this rule by allowing News Corporation and Tribune to acquire television stations in markets where they own newspapers, subject to future review. Edward John Noble Edward John Noble Edward J Noble seated second from left at the Conference of Latin American Retailers Edward John Noble (1882 – 1958, aged 76) was an American broadcasting and candy industrialist originally from Gouverneur , New York . He co-founded the Life Savers Corporation in 1913. He founded the American Broadcasting Company when he purchased the Blue Network in 1943 following the Federal Communications Commission ‘s (FCC) decree that RCA divest itself of one of its two radio networks. Edward Noble was born in Gouverneur, New York and educated in the public schools. He attended Syracuse University and graduated from Yale in 1905. In 1912, chocolate manufacturer Clarence Crane of Cleveland, Ohio invented Life Savers as a “summer candy” that could withstand heat better than chocolate. Since the mints looked like miniature life preservers, he called them Life Savers.

After registering the trademark, Crane sold the rights to the peppermint candy to Edward Noble for $2,900. Instead of using cardboard rolls, which were not very successful, Noble created tin-foil wrappers to keep the mints fresh. Pep-O-Mint was the first Life Savers flavor. He was the first chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Authority . He also served as secretary of Commerce under President Franklin D. Roosevelt , 1939-1940. Following the Federal Communications Commission ‘s order that RCA divest itself of one of its two radio networks, he founded the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) when he purchased the Blue Network (formerly part of NBC) on October 12, 1943. [1] Noble tried valiantly to build ABC into an innovative and competitive broadcaster, but was hampered by financial problems and the pressure of competing with long-established NBC and CBS , and by 1951 was forced to enter negotiations to merge the network with United Paramount Theaters , headed by Leonard Goldenson ; Goldenson would become chairman of the ABC network, while Noble remained on the ABC board of directors for the remainder of his life.

In 1943, Edward John Noble bought the St. Catherines Island on the coast of Georgia; in 1968, ten years after his death, the island was transferred to the Edward J. Noble Foundation. The island is now owned by the St. Catherines Island Foundation, and the island’s interior is operated for charitable, scientific, literary, and educational purposes. The foundation aims to promote conservation of natural resources, the survival of endangered species, and the preservation of historic sites, and to expand human knowledge in the fields of ecology , botany , zoology , natural history, archaeology , and other scientific and educational disciplines. Noble was part of the St. Lawrence Seaway Project and was appointed to the advisory board by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1954. He owned Boldt Castle , the Thousand Island Club, and a summer residence on Wellesley Island. The ornamental street lights in the village park are all that remain of the gift of new street lights that were given to the village by Edward and his brother, Robert. The lights were in memory of their father. Edward Noble died peacefully in his sleep on December 28, 1958.

[2] Three hospitals and a foundation are named after him. In Rocksteady Studios ‘ most recent and final installment of the Batman Arkham video game series, Batman Arkham Knight , there is a possible dual reference to Edward J Noble and Arkham Knight 3D artist Edward Noble. [3] After entering the tower from Bruce Wayne’s office balcony, a plaque recognizing either (or both) Noble(s) can be found beside a model of Wayne Tower in the receptionist lobby. It reads “Wayne Tower & Plaza Architecture by: Edward Noble” followed by a model credit to “Martin Teichmann” (a Rocksteady Studios Environment Artist). [4] References ^ “Approves Buying of Blue Network,” The New York Times, Wednesday, October 13, 1943. ^ The History of the Radio Industry in the United States to 1940 The History of the Radio Industry in the United States to 1940 Carole E. Scott, State University of West Georgia The Technological Development of Radio: From Thales to Marconi All electrically-based industries trace their ancestry back to at least 600 B.C.

when the Greek philosopher Thales observed that after it is rubbed, amber (electron in Greek) attracts small objects. In 1600, William Gilbert, an Englishman, distinguished between magnetism, such as that displayed by a lodestone, and what we now call the static electricity produced by rubbing amber. In 1752, America’s multi-talented Benjamin Franklin used a kite connected to a Leyden jar during a thunderstorm to prove that a lightning flash has the same nature as static electricity. In 1831, an American, Joseph Henry, used an electromagnet to send messages by wire between buildings on Princeton’s campus. Assisted by Henry, an American artist, Samuel F. B. Morse, developed a telegraph system utilizing a key to open and close an electric circuit to transmit an intermittent signal (Morse Code) through a wire. The possibility of transmitting messages through the air, water, or ground via low frequency magnetic waves was discovered soon after Morse invented the telegraph. Induction was the method used in the first documented “wireless telephone” demonstration by Nathan B. Stubblefield, a Kentucky farmer, in 1892.

Because Stubblefield transmitted sound through the air via induction, rather than by radiation, he was not the inventor of radio. Transmission by radiation owes its existence to the discovery in1877 of electromagnetic waves by a German, Heinrich Rudolf Hertz. Electromagnetic waves of from 10,000 cycles a second to 1,200,000,000 cycles a second are today called radio waves. Eight years after Hertz’s discovery, an American, Thomas Alva Edison, took out a patent for wireless telegraphy through the use of discontinuous radio waves. A few years later, in 1894, using a different and much superior wireless telegraphy system, an Italian, Guglielmo Marconi, used discontinuous waves to send Morse Code messages through the air for short distances over land. Later he sent them across the Atlantic Ocean. On land in Europe Marconi was stymied by laws giving government-operated postal services a monopoly on message delivery, and initially only over water was he able to transmit radio waves very far. Several Americans transmitted speech without the benefit of wires prior to 1900. Alexander G.

Bell, for example, experimented in 1890 with transmitting sound with rays of light, whose frequency exceeds that of radio waves. His test of what he called the photophone was said to be the first practical test of such a device ever made. Although Marconi is widely given the credit for being the first man to develop a successful wireless system, some believe that others, including Nicola Tesla preceded him. However, it is clear that Marconi had far more influence on the shaping of the radio industry than these men did. The Structure of the Radio Industry before 1920: Inventor-Entrepreneurs As had been true of earlier high-tech industries such as the telegraph and electric lighting in their formative years, what was accomplished in the early years of the radio industry was primarily brought about by inventor/entrepreneurs. None of the major electrical and telephone companies played a role in the formative years of the radio industry. So this industry’s early history is a story of individual inventors and entrepreneurs, many of whom were both inventors and entrepreneurs. However, after 1920 this industry’s history is largely one of organizations. Scientists obtain their objective by discovering the laws of nature.

Inventors, on the other hand, use the laws of nature to find a way to do something. Because they do not know or do not care what scientists’ laws say is possible, inventors will try things that scientists will not. When the creations of inventors work in seeming defiance of scientists’ work, scientists rush to the lab to find out why. Scientists thought that radio waves could not be transmitted beyond the horizon because they thought that this would require that they bend to follow the curvature of the Earth. Marconi tried transmitting beyond the horizon anyway and succeeded. A typical scientist would not have tried to do this because he knew better and his fellow scientists might laugh at him. Marconi Marconi may not have been visionary enough to found the radio broadcasting industry. Vision was required because, while there was already an established market for electronic, point-to-point communication, there was no existing market for broadcasting, nor could the technology for transmitting speech be as easily developed as could that for transmitting dots and dashes. In point-to-point communications radio’s disadvantage was lack of privacy. Its competitive advantage was much lower cost than transmission by wire over land and undersea cable.

Due in part to his Marconi Company’s purchase of competitors who had infringed on its patents, by the time World War I broke out, the American Marconi Company dominated the American radio market. As a result, it had no overwhelming need to develop a new service. In addition, Marconi had no surplus funds to plow into a new business. Shortly after the end of World War I, the United States’ government’s hostile attitude convinced Marconi that his British-based company had no future in America, and he agreed to sell it to the General Electric Company (GE). Marconi had wanted to create an international wireless monopoly. However, the United States government opposed the creation of a foreign-owned wireless monopoly. During World War I the United States Navy was given control of all the nation’s private wireless facilities. After the war the Navy wanted wireless to continue to be a government-controlled monopoly. Unable to achieve this, the Navy recommended that an American-owned company be established to control the manufacture and marketing of wireless in the United States. As a result, the government-sponsored Radio Corporation of America was created to take over the assets of Marconi’s American company.

The four chief players in American radio’s early years, Marconi, Canadian-born Aubrey Fessenden, Lee deForest, and John Stone Stone [sic] were all inventor/entrepreneurs. Marconi successfully exploited the interdependence among technology, business strategy, and the press. He was the only one of the four to have an adequate business strategy. Only he and deForest took full advantage of the press. However, deForest seems to have used the press more to sell stock than apparatus. Marconi was also more astute in his patent dealings than were his American competitors. For example, to protect himself from a possible patent suit, he purchased from Thomas A. Edison his patent on a system of wireless telegraphy that Edison had never used. Marconi never used it either because it was inferior to one he developed. Fessenden Fessenden, a very prolific inventor, first experimented with voice transmission while working for the United States Weather Bureau. In 1900 he left what is now the University of Pittsburgh, where he was head of the electrical engineering department, to develop a method for the U.S. Weather Bureau to transmit weather reports.

That year, through the use of a transmitter that produced discontinuous waves, he succeeded in transmitting speech. Although discontinuous waves would satisfactorily transmit the dots and dashes of Morse code, high quality voice and music cannot be transmitted in this way. So, in 1902, Fessenden switched to using a continuous wave, becoming the first person to transmit voice and music by this method. On Christmas Eve, 1906, Fessenden made history by broadcasting music and speech from Massachusetts that was heard as far away as the West Indies. After picking up this broadcast, the United Fruit Company purchased equipment from Fessenden to communicate with its ships. Navies and shipping companies were among those most interested in purchasing early radio equipment. During World War I armies also made significant use of radio. Important among its army uses was communicating with airplanes. Because he did not provide a regular schedule of programming for the public, Fessenden is not usually credited with having operated the first broadcasting station. Nonetheless, he is widely recognized as the father of broadcasting because those who had gone before him had only used radio to deliver messages from one person to another.

However, despite being preoccupied with laboratory work and being unsuited by temperament and experience to be a businessman, he chose to directly manage his company. It failed, and an embittered Fessenden left the radio industry. deForest Lee deForest, whose doctoral dissertation was about Hertzian waves, received his Ph.D. from Yale in 1896. His first job was with Western Electric. By 1902 he had started the DeForest Wireless Telegraph Company, which became insolvent in 1906. His second company, the DeForest Radio Telephone Company began to fail in 1909. In 1912 he was indicted for using the mails to defraud by promoting “a worthless device,” the Audion tube. He was acquitted. The Audion tube (later known as a triode tube) was far from being a worthless device, as it was a key component of radios so long as vacuum tubes continued to be used. The development of a commercially viable radio broadcasting industry could not have taken place without the invention of the vacuum tube, which had its origins in Englishman Michael Faraday’s belief that an electric current could probably pass through a vacuum.

(The vacuum tube’s obsolescence was the result of a study of semiconductors in 1948 by William Shockley, Walter Brattain, and John Bardeen. They discovered that the introduction of impurities into semiconductors provided a solid-state material that would not only rectify a current, but also amplify it. Transistors using this material rapidly replaced vacuum tubes. Later it became possible to etch transistors on small pieces of silicon in integrated circuits.) In 1910, deForest broadcast, probably rather poorly, the singing of opera singer Enrico Caruso. Possibly stimulated by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company transmitting from the Navy’s Arlington, Virginia facility in 1915 radio telephone signals heard both across the Atlantic and in Honolulu, deForest resumed experimenting with broadcasting. He installed a transmitter at the Columbia Gramophone building in New York and began daily broadcasts of phonograph music sponsored by Columbia. Because in the late nineteenth century the new electrical industry had made some investors multimillionaires almost over night, Americans like deForest and his partners found easy pickings for awhile, as many people were eager to snap up the stock offered by overly optimistic inventors in this new branch of the electrical industry.

The quick failure of firms whose end, rather than their means, was selling stock made life more difficult for ethical firms. Amateur Radio In the United States in 1913 there were 322 licensed amateur radio operators who would ultimately be relegated to the seemingly barren wasteland of the radio spectrum, short wave. By 1917 there were 13,581 amateur radio operators. At that time building a radio receiver was a fad. The typical builder was a boy or young man. Many older people thought that all radio would ever be was a fad, and certainly so long as the public had to build its own radios, put up with poor reception, and listen to dots and dashes and a few experimental broadcasts of music and speech over earphones, relatively few people were going to be interested in having a radio. Laying the groundwork for making radio a mass medium was Edwin H. Armstrong’s invention based on work he did in the U.S. Army during World War I of the super heterodyne that made it possible to replace earphones with a loudspeaker.

In 1921, the American Radio Relay league and a British amateur group assisted by Armstrong, an engineer and college professor, proved that contrary to the belief of experts, short waves can travel over long distances. Three years later Marconi, who had previously used only long waves, showed that short-wave radio waves, by bounding off the upper atmosphere, can hopscotch around the world. This discovery led to short wave radio being used for long distance radio broadcasting. (Today telephone companies use microwave relay systems for long-distance, on-shore communication through the air.) After 1920: Large Corporations Come to Dominate the Industry In 1919, Frank Conrad, a Westinghouse engineer, began broadcasting music in Pittsburgh. These broadcasts stimulated the sales of crystal sets. A crystal set, which could be made at home, was composed of a tuning coil, a crystal detector, and a pair of earphones. The use of a crystal eliminated the need for a battery or other electric source. The popularity of Conrad’s broadcasts led to Westinghouse establishing a radio station, KDKA, on November 2, 1920.

In 1921, KDKA began broadcasting prizefights and major league baseball. While Conrad was creating KDKA, the Detroit News established a radio station. Other newspapers soon followed the Detroit newspaper’s lead. RCA The Radio Corporation of America (RCA) was the government-sanctioned radio monopoly formed to replace Marconi’s American company. (Later, a government that had once considered making radio a government monopoly followed a policy of promoting competition in the radio industry.) RCA was owned by a GE-dominated partnership that included Westinghouse, American Telegraph and Telephone Company (AT&T), Western Electric, United Fruit Company, and others. There were cross-licensing agreements (patent pooling) agreements between GE, AT&T, Westinghouse, and RCA, which owned the assets of Marconi’s company. Patent pooling was the solution to the problem of each company owning some essential patents. For many years RCA and its head, David Sarnoff, were virtual synonyms. Sarnoff, who began his career in radio as a Marconi office boy, gained fame as a wireless operator and showed the great value of radio when he picked up distress messages from the sinking Titanic. Ultimately, RCA expanded into nearly every area of communications and electronics.

Its extensive patent holdings gave it power over most of its competitors because they had to pay it royalties. While still working for Marconi Sarnoff had the foresight to realize that the real money in radio lay in selling radio receivers. (Because the market was far smaller, radio transmitters generated smaller revenues.) Financing Radio Broadcasts Marconi was able to charge people for transmitting messages for them, but how was radio broadcasting to be financed? In Europe the government financed it. In this country it soon came to be largely financed by advertising. In 1922, few stations sold advertising time. Then the motive of many operating radio stations was to advertise other businesses they owned or to get publicity. About a quarter of the nation’s 500 stations were owned by manufacturers, retailers, and other businesses, such as hotels and newspapers. Another quarter were owned by radio-related firms. Educational institutions, radio clubs, civic groups, churches, government, and the military owned 40 percent of the stations. Radio manufacturers viewed broadcasting simply as a way to sell radios. Over its first three years of selling radios, RCA’s revenues amounted to $83,500,000.

By 1930 nine out of ten broadcasting stations were selling advertising time. In 1939, more than a third of the stations lost money. However, by the end of World War II only five percent were in the red. Stations’ advertising revenues came both from local and national advertisers after networks were established. By 1938, 40 percent of the nation’s 660 stations were affiliated with a network, and many were part of a chain (commonly-owned). Radio Networks On September 25, 1926, RCA formed the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) to take over its network broadcasting business. In early 1927 only seven percent of the nation’s 737 radio stations were affiliated with NBC. In that year a rival network whose name eventually became the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) was established. In 1928, CBS was purchased and reorganized by William S. Paley, a cigar company executive whose CBS career spanned more than a half-century. In 1934, the Mutual Broadcasting System was formed. Unlike NBC and CBS, it did not move into television.

In 1943, the Federal Communications Commission forced NBC to sell a part of its system to Edward J. Noble, who formed the American Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). To avoid the high cost of producing radio shows, local radio stations got most of their shows other than news from the networks, which enjoyed economies of scale in producing radio programs because their costs were spread over the many stations using their programming. The Golden Age of Radio Radio broadcasting was the cheapest form of entertainment, and it provided the public with far better entertainment than most people were accustomed to. As a result, its popularity grew rapidly in the late 1920s and early 1930s, and by 1934, 60 percent of the nation’s households had radios. One and a half million cars were also equipped with them. The 1930s were the Golden Age of radio. It was so popular that theaters dared not open until after the extremely popular “Amos ‘n Andy” show was over. In the thirties radio broadcasting was an entirely different genre from what it became after the introduction of television.

Those who have only known the music, news, and talk radio of recent decades can have no conception of the big budget days of the thirties when radio was king of the electronic hill. Like reading, radio demanded the use of imagination. Through image-inspiring sound effects, which reached a high degree of sophistication in the thirties, radio replaced vision with visualization. Perfected during the thirties was the only new “art form” radio originated, the “soap opera,” so called because the sponsors of these serialized morality plays aimed at housewives, who were then very numerous, were usually soap companies. The Growth of Radio The growth of radio in the 1920s and 30s can be seen in Tables 1, 2, and 3, which give the number of stations, the amount of advertising revenue and sales of radio equipment.

Table 1 Number of Radio Stations in the US, 1921-1940 Year NBC Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American television broadcasting and cable company, including the NBC television network , the Telemundo Spanish language broadcast television network, the CNBC, MSNBC and Bravo cable channels, and a group of owned-and-operated television stations. NBC was founded in 1926 by the Radio Corporation of American, RCA , and is today owned by General Electric . The NBC radio network opened with 24 stations on November 15 , 1926. NBC's logo is an abstraction of a peacock to indicate richness in color. The National Broadcasting Company was created when RCA purchased radio stations WEAF New York, WCAP Washington, DC and the radio programming network from American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) in 1926 and merged those assets with its own WJZ New York, WRC Washington and radio programming network. The WEAF stations and network would become known as the NBC Red network, the WJZ stations and network would be dubbed the NBC Blue network (later to become ABC, the American Broadcasting Company ).

The WEAF network was created by the American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T) to serve as a research and development for technologies involved with transmitting audio over wire and radio. AT&T's Western Electric division manufactured radio transmitters and antennas and needed a real-world environment to test their design and ability to transmit audio. AT&T's long distance and local Bell operating divisions were developing technologies for transmitting voice and music grade audio over short and long distances, via both wireless and wired methods. These effort came together to create radio station WEAF in New York City. With a radio station broadcasting to the public, programming was needed. WEAF put together a regular schedule of programs of all types, and created some of the first broadcasts to encorporate commercial endorsements or sponsorships by commercial entities. The station met with great success, and with the opening of radio stations across the United States many stations wished to share programming. WEAF's first efforts in what would become known first as "chain broadcasting" and later as "networking" tied together The Outlet Company's WJAR in Providence, Rhode Island with AT&T's WEAF and WCAP in Washington, DC (named for the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company division of AT&T).

With the success of this effort and the good audio quality of AT&T's phone line circuits, the WEAF network became a success. At the same time, RCA was beginning to realize that sharing programming on stations in different cities also made sense. RCA licensed WRC in Washington, DC in 1923 and attempted to transmit audio between cities via low-quality telegraph lines, since AT&T refused outside companies access to their high-quality phone lines. The effort was poor at best, with the uninsulated telegraph lines incapable of good audio transmission quality and very succeptable to both atmospheric and man-made electrical interference. In 1925 the management of AT&T decided that WEAF and its network were not compatible with AT&T's goal of providing phone service and began looking to sell the station and its network. AT&T found a ready buyer in RCA, whose primary business was radio broadcasting and manufacturing, the a deal was struck where RCA would buy WEAF and gain the rights to rent AT&T's phone lines to transmit radio programs between cities.

In 1926 RCA bought WEAF, closed WCAP, created the wholly-owned division called the National Broadcasting Company and operated the New York stations and the two network efforts side by side for about a year. In 1927 NBC formally created two radio networks, the NBC Red Network with WEAF as its originating station distributing mostly entertainment and music programming; and the NBC Blue Network with WJZ as its originating station and concentrating on news and cultural programming. Legend has it that the color designations originated from the color of the push pins the engineers at AT&T used to designate the affiliates of WEAF (red push pins) and RCA's WJZ (blue push pins). At various times in the 1930s there were several other color designation, with the NBC White, Gold and Orange networks operating in various configuration of the west coast. The famous 3-note chimes of NBC came about after several years of trying different musical note combinations.

The three note combination (G-E-C; not related at all to RCA's original stockholder General Electric)came from WSB in Atlanta, which used it for its own purposes until one day someone at NBC in New York heard the WSB version of the notes and asked permission to use it on the national network. NBC started to use the 3 notes in 1933, and it was the first ever audio trademark to be accepted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. NBC became the primary tenant in the brand new Rockefeller Center project in 1936. It would serve to consolidate radio operations, some RCA corporate operations, and the home of the flagship theatres of RCA-owned RKO Radio Pictures in the Radio City Music Hall of the RKO Roxie theatre (since torn down). From its creation in 1934, the Federal Communications Commission had been studying the monopolistic effects of chain broadcasting (what we now call "networking") on the radio industry, and found that the NBC Red and Blue networks and their owned-and-operated radio stations owned by NBC controlled the majority of radio audiences, radio affiliates and advertising dollars in the American radio industry.

In 1939 the FCC ordered RCA to divest itself of one of the two NBC networks and accompanying owned-and-operated stations. RCA fought the divestiture order, but divided NBC into two companies in 1940 in case the appeals were lost. The NBC Blue network became the "NBC Blue Network, Inc." and the NBC Red Network becoming the "NBC Red Network, Inc." With the loss of the final appeal before the United States Supreme Court, RCA sold the NBC Blue Network, Inc. to Lifesavers magnate Edward J. Noble in 1943. He renamed the company "The Blue Network, Inc." but quickly realized that the name was not appropriate for a major radio network. After acquiring the rights to the name "the American Broadcasting Company " from broadcaster George Storer in 1946, the Blue Network, Inc. become the American Broadcasting Company. The NBC Red Network was renamed the NBC Radio Network after the Blue network was sold. Since GE's acquisition of RCA, NBC has been owned by General Electric . The NBC Radio Network was sold by General Electric in 1988 to Westwood One.

While the chimes and an hourly newscast still appear on radio at certain times on weekdays, the NBC Radio Network as a programming service ceased to exist in 1989 and simply became a marketing brand name for programming produced by Westwood One. For many years NBC was closely identified with founder David Sarnoff , who viewed it as a means for selling entertainment, and consumer electronics. While CBS has received more attention from historians discussing broadcast journalism history, NBC's news operation was no slouch. From 1956 through 1970, the television broadcast team of Chet Huntley and David Brinkley consistently exceeded the viewership levels attained by CBS News and its main anchor Walter Cronkite . The dominance ended when Huntley retired, to die a year later from cancer. The loss of Huntley, along with a reluctance of RCA to fund NBC News at the level CBS was funding CBS News, left NBC News in the doldrums. NBC News did not recover viewership levels until after GE acquired RCA. NBC is based in New York's Rockefeller Center . NBC operates the cable networks CNBC , MSNBC (in conjunction with Microsoft Corporation), Bravo , and Telemundo (in Spanish). Related articles

Question: Which broadcasting company did Edward J Noble found?
Answer: ABC